Bosses Find Part-Time Workers Can Come With Full-Time Headaches

Skimping on health insurance carries a hidden price for some fast-food restaurants.

Paula Connelly/Getty Images

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Paula Connelly/Getty Images

Skimping on health insurance carries a hidden price for some fast-food restaurants.

Paula Connelly/Getty Images

Starting in 2016, the federal health law requires small employers to offer their full-time workers health insurance. In anticipation of the change, some fast-food restaurants looked to get around the law by making more workers part time. Now some owners are rethinking that approach.

At a Burger King off Highway 99 in California’s Central Valley, a half-dozen workers in black uniforms scurry around, grabbing packets of ketchup and stuffing paper bags with french fries.

Tiana Mua has worked here part time for almost a year. She’d like to be full time, but at this Burger King only the managers are full time. (The company didn’t respond to an interview request.)

Mua says that’s the situation at fast-food joints all over town. “They’re cutting back on all the jobs, and a